Is it better to go to Disneyland or a Disney Cruise?

Christine Knight |
October 24, 2017

This mum weighs up the different ways you can get your Mickey Mouse, Cars, or Frozen travel fix.

When you have a Disney-mad kid like I do, a Disney holiday is high at the top of their wish list. How do you decide what type of Disney holiday to take? We’ve explored both Disneyland and Disney cruises and have found plenty to love about them both.

If you’re thinking about getting your Disney travel fix too, here’s what you need to know.

Booking the trip

Disneyland

I booked all the hotels and park tickets on my own. I always book a hotel off the property because it’s cheaper and I can funnel the money I save on a hotel towards the cost of expensive days at the parks. Last visit we stayed at the Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel and Water Playground across the road from Disneyland for a fraction of the cost of staying at an official Disney hotel. Is it as fancy? No. Does it matter when all you do is sleep there? Absolutely not. I also bought the park tickets online in advance, which helped with the planning.

Little Eloise loving the Disneyland action. Image: Supplied

Disney cruise

I used a travel agent to book my Disney cruises - the first time through Flight Centre in Australia - but the second time I went through an official Disney travel agent who gave me an added $200 onboard credit that’s only available to US-based travel agents.

Planning the trip

Disneyland

I like to plan in detail because I know Disneyland is always busy. I have a list of the rides we want to do, and the plan is to hit them all first thing in the morning when we arrive and get FastPasses (a system where you reserve a time to come back to the ride later) to skip the queue on popular rides. I book character dining in advance through the Disneyland website and call over the phone to reserve a princess makeover for my daughter at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Disney cruise

The only advance planning involved is choosing ticketed on board events and port activities. There are free on board activities to choose from, so I lock in the Disney Character Breakfast and Princess Meet and Greet. Port activities are optional and while you can book them through Disney, you can also book them through external operators if you like or even when you dock at a port.

Meeting Peter Pan on the Disney Cruise. Image: Supplied

During the trip

Disneyland

My daughter is a ride freak. At age almost-five she steers away from the character meetings and just wants to ride roller coasters till we want to vomit. We arrive at the park each of the three days we are there about 40 minutes before it opens so we can get in ahead of the crowd and get to the good rides first. The bulk of the crowd arrives from 11am onwards, so we have a fantastic 2 - 3 hours each morning to ride our hearts out, and then spend the rest of the day watching parades, shows, shopping and eating.

It’s exhausting and at the end of each day we are totally beat, but it’s also a huge amount of fun. My daughter’s smile never leaves her face and I don’t miss a moment of her day. We do every crazy ride together and her happy laughter while we spin in circles on the teacup ride makes my heart sing. She loves to see Mummy having silly fun with her rather than watching her from a distance.

Loving those teacup rides. Image: Supplied

Disney cruise

The cruises run at a slower pace than Disneyland. We sleep in, have a slow breakfast, check out the activity schedule, watch a movie, take a dip in the pool. It’s all relaxed and calm. Our daughter is an only child and loves the kids’ club, so we take her there each day or a few hours when the ship doesn’t dock at a port. She has so much fun making friends that she doesn’t want to leave, while my husband and I take that time to spend time together, have a coffee or cocktail in one of the adult-only areas and read a book.

There are characters galore roaming around the ship and hidden Mickey Mouse ears in the detailing on the floors and fabric all over the ship - but the theming is a lot more subtle here than at Disneyland. My husband, who is not into Disney at all, really enjoys himself in what doesn’t feel like an overly “kid” or “cartoony” environment.

On our last cruise we sailed up the Inside Passage of Alaska and stopped at some incredible ports like Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. We had a fantastic time together exploring the ports and enjoying some pretty crazy activities like dog sledding on top of a glacier. Cruising to different destinations certainly takes the effort and stress out of travel, particularly with kids in tow.

Meeting Minnie Mouse on the Disney Cruise to Alaska. Image: Supplied

OK, here comes the cost…

Disneyland

Hotel: Four nights at $192 (AU) a night = approx $770 (AU)

Park tickets: A three-day one-park-per-day pass for 2 adult and 1 child = approx $1000. Additional extras like food for 3 people: Approx $100-150 (AU) a day. And return flights to LA range between $900-$1200 each, depending what time of year you go.

Cruise

Cruise cost: $10K for two adults and one child, not including optional extras. Note: we chose a balcony room. Cheaper rooms are available without a balcony. Includes: All meals, entertainment, kids’ clubs, room service

Additional extras: port activities, adult dining, a few cafes, laundry facilities, alcohol. And let's not forget the flights to actually get to the cruise! For the Alaska flight we flew into Vancouver via San Francisco. Flights were roughly $4,000 for the three of us including all taxes etc.

Being taken into the land of Frozen on board the Disney Cruise. Image: Supplied

The final verdict: Disneyland or Disney Cruise?

I honestly loved them equally because the experiences are so different. Contrary to people’s beliefs, the cruise was more expensive so was a special experience to save up for while Disneyland can be done on the cheap with clever planning.

We found the cruise incredibly relaxing and gave us time to bond as a family over special moments, even little ones like eating dinner together at one of the restaurants each night where, with someone else doing the cooking, we could just chat, draw silly pictures with our daughter, and enjoy each others’ company. The cruise was absolutely a holiday for us all.

In contrast, our Disneyland trip was a lot more full-on. It was a lot more tiring for me personally since I had to do so much more, but my daughter loved seeing the magic of Disney really come to life in ways that it only does at the parks.

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